D1B's Kendall Rogers runs through the timeline of A&M's coaching change

Hayden Schott, Gavin Grahovac and Jace LaViolette withdrew their names from the transfer portal and announced their return to Texas A&M this week. D1Baseball's Kendall Rogers dives into what Aggies baseball's roster could look like in Michael Earley's first year.

Key notes from Kendall Rogers interview

• With the hire of Michael Earley, I think I would have a different outlook on this if Earley went out and hired some assistants that I’m like “Ehh, I don't know about this.”
   
• One thing I do like about Earley is that he's obviously very confident in his ability to be the head coach at Texas A&M. I think the first step is saying that with conviction and then actually feeling like he's ready for this.
   
• Earley had a concise plan. Another interesting thing is he's approaching this thing with a Tony Vitello model. Vitello hired Frank Anderson, and Earley went out and got Jason Kelley.
   
• Had he not hired Kelley and brought in Caleb Longley, who had a very good offense at Texas last year, I think we’d be seeing a slightly different team.
   
• We’re going to see about this hire in two or three years when you don't have the roster you have this year. So far, I feel like Earley has checked a lot of boxes, and frankly, I was skeptical that he wouldn't when he got hired at Texas A&M.
   
• I don't want to burn sources here, but obviously, A&M engaged Brian O’Connor. They also approached,  to some degree, Link Jarrett and then Vitello, who I think was the guy they really went after.
   
• From what I understand, Vitello pondered the idea. I think the idea of getting Vitello was far-fetched, but from what I understand, he seriously considered it. If you can’t get those three guys, people are going to say, “A&M is not a big-time program.”
   
• Vitello has a gold mine in Tennessee. He can get whatever he wants. O’Connor has a son who's a senior in high school and did not want to move his kid. Jarrett was brought back to Florida State, specifically by Mike Martin’s family. He's not going to burn that bridge.
   
• I think once they got past those guys, they looked at Tom Walter or Dan Heefner. Oh, by the way, Earley wanted to interview for this job.
   
• I'm sure Trev Alberts did not expect Earley to have that detailed of a plan. My understanding was Earley went in there and got an A+. He had a plan and a lot of confidence and laid out an entire vision of what he wanted to do for the program.
   
• If you're A&M and get those top three guys because of other circumstances, are you hiring the guy who can keep the roster and killed the interview, or are you going down the list and hiring another guy?
   
• You can argue until you're blue in the face about what direction they should've gone, but especially in the short term, A&M probably made the right decision. Again, we'll find out in two or three years if they made the right decision long term.
   
• I have reason to assume that Earley is not going to do really well, but look at the guys who have been 36 or 37 when they were first the head coach. O’Connor, Vitello, Jay Johnson. The list goes on.
   
• Any broad statement that it was a terrible hire, or quite frankly, it was an A+ hire, is to be determined. I'm checking some good boxes for Michael Earley, at least in the short term.
   
• A&M is a team, on paper, going into next year in a good situation. They have to show up on the pitching side a little bit, and I don’t think they’re anywhere near done in the portal. That is going to be a roster. Earleyl is a really confident dude and is in such a unique position to be in as a first-year head coach.
   
• Catcher is going to be an interesting position. Obviously, you have Max Kaufer in the portal, and Jackson Appel, I think they would like to get him back. I think he's going to get drafted relatively high. The USC catcher Jacob Galloway is in the portal, and he’s a talented guy to keep an eye on.
   
• The other thing from A&M’s standpoint is to have some options like Cam Clayton and Aiva Arquette, so if Kaeden Kent decides he doesn't come back, those are two more options.
   
• A&M is going to have a lot of options, and from what I understand, the NIL part of the system has been ramped up significantly. Not only was it ramped up before Jim Schlossnagle left, but I was told after he left that they would go all out. It certainly seems like that’s the case.
   
• Texas has flipped a few A&M high school guys. I want to say two or three of them are pitchers, so they're following Max Weiner out there. In terms of head-to-head in the portal right now, they're 0-0.
   
• I guess you could count Jace LaViolette, but I actually felt like LaViolette and Gavin Grahovac had more of a chance to go to Tennessee or LSU over Texas. You can argue all day long about how things unfolded, but those guys are really good coaches. I think Texas and A&M can both be really good in the baseball landscape.
   
• I kind of first felt a little odd about the situation around the regional. People reached out to me about it, but I didn't think anything of it. I just don't know if I saw him leaving A&M for Texas.
   
• In Omaha, there were some things being talked about. Schlossnagle’s statement at the press conference on Monday night, honestly, was the closer for me. That was really eliminating for me, and then, of course, we know what happened the following 24 hours.
   
• At the end of the day, I have zero doubts that this thing had to be in the works. There's no way you're making that transition as fast as you are and no way you're announcing your staff 24 hours later if that's not something you put together beforehand. That's not something you're putting in your own head that quickly, on a limb, without planning it out.
   
• I talked to sources. I talked to Schlossnagle. I think the people around the situation would have liked to handle things differently. Whether it's fair or not to Schlossnagle or anyone else, the perception from A&M fans was you took our team from the Men’s College World Series and left as soon as you got off the bus.
   
• I think if Schlossnagle waited three or four days and came out and said, “Listen, A&M is awesome, but I want to coach for my best friend...” It would not be what it is today.